Abstract

There is a paucity of Palaeolithic art in the southern Levant prior to 15 000 years ago. The Natufian culture (15 000–11 500 BP; Grosman 2013) marks a threshold in the magnitude and diversity of artistic manifestations (Bar-Yosef 1997). Nevertheless, depictions of the human form remain rare—only a few representations of the human face have been reported to date. This article presents a 12 000-year-old example unearthed at the Late Natufian site of Nahal Ein Gev II (NEGII), just east of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. The object provides a glimpse into Natufian conventions of human representation, and opens a rare opportunity for deeper understanding of the Natufian symbolic system.

Authors

Leore GrosmanInstitute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel; The Jack, Joseph and Morton Scholion-Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel